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The upstairs bedroom is a dome
room upon a dome room. Any rain water that blows into the room
finds its way out fast. The bed hangs from the ceiling by four
cables. Rats don't get on the bed, even if they do get in the
room. I very selfom use a mosquito net because I am very careful
about trash disposal. Loose trash tends to breed mosquitos.
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This is the original plywood
cabin that got incorporated into the main cement structure. You
are standing in the main room of the house, looking across the safety
barrier around the vertical shaft and seeing the front of the original
cabin.
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This is some of the outdoor
walkway. It has cracks running throughout it, but due to the
fishnet, the pieces are held in place. The cement protects the
nylon from ultraviolet light damage, so the nylon-cement material has
pretty good longevity. The surface is badly cracked, but
considering that the layer is only 1/4 inch thick, I would say it has
held up very well over time.
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This is the front door of the
house. It includes some stained glass set into a cement framework
with silicone rubber. The doors all weigh about 600 lbs. and were
made in place. They are just as strong as the walls of the house
are.
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Originally, I made an outdoor
fishpond. Then, to keep the water cleaner for use as a swimming
pool, I built a room over it. After maintaining it for about a
year, I decided the water was too cold and gave it back to the
fish. I now also have some turtles in the pond. It has an
interesting ecosystem going on.
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The pond is irregularly shaped,
like a natural pond. These "rocks" for sitting on are just carved
dirt with a layer of nylon-cement over them.
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This is the view as you first
approach the house.
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This is the window of my Jeep
garage. It has "rejas" for security, and allows
ventilation. The design was made by wrapping strips of
cement-soaked fishnet around the rebar and then plastering them with an
artist's palette knife as with a small trowel.
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This is the upstairs
bedroom. The windows are big cavelike openings. The bed
hangs from the ceiling by four cables and swings like a hammock.
A plastic tarp is used to cover the bed when there is rain and
wind. The floor, being the domed ceiling from the room below,
allows any water that gets in to quickly drain out holes at the base of
the walls.
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This is the kitchen area of the
main room of the house. Things are organized mostly by hanging
them from the wall in front of the counter or from the ceiling
overhead. I use a small gas stove for cooking. The old
refrigerator, which was given to me was rusty and falling apart.
I covered the outside with a layer of nylon-cement and eliminated the
rust problem.
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Here I am looking through the
"rejas" of another structure on the property.
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This is the point of most
interest in the house tour, it seems. I made this flush toilet
with a glass canopy over it in case it rains. The tank part is a
green plastic drum covered in nylon-cement with all the standard
toilet hardware in it. It is not as high as the old chain-pull
toilet tanks, but it does have a good head of pressure from the
elevation it has.
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Trash rocks are probably one of
my best ideas. I sew big sacks of fishnet, fill them with my
unrecyclable trash, and plaster the fishnet with cement. The
resulting trash rocks can be used for benches, tables, sculpture bases,
and probably walls. I like to imagine a family living in one
place over generations, building a castle out of their trash.
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This is the skylight at the end
of one of the tunnel branches. Now you have seen the light.
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The tunnels average about 7 feet
high. They have electrical lights and all the floors slope toward
the entry door for water drainage. There are some cracks in the
cement from earth movements or water back pressure in rainy season, but
in general the tunnels are in very good condition. Cement like
humidity. The underground environment is perfect for it. I
wouldn't be surprised if the tunnels lasted a thousand years.
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This is a view of the upstairs
bedroom. If walls are painted with paint, spiders make webs on
them. The walls of the house are colorized with tinted cement,
which the spiders aparently don't like. The house stays cleaner
looking, which means less maintenance work.
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Our water system used to be
overloaded with people and I was at the end of the line. To avoid
long water outages (3 months at one time), I made these two water
tanks. Now I am never without water.
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This is the west door of the
house. I sculpted a dragon on it just for fun.
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